The present invention is directed to a computerized document management system, and more particularly to a computerized document management system which facilitates the viewing and evaluation of documents by a plurality of participants in the creation and revision of the document by providing advanced document segmentation, on-the-fly definition presentation, and linked and context-sensitive document comments created by the plurality of participants.
Many word processing documents are created by a sole author and are thereafter subject to revision by the original author alone. In such documents, it is relatively easy for the sole author to evaluate and revise the document. Typically, the author can simply print out a hard copy of the document, inscribe written comments on various portions of the hard copy of the document where such comments are pertinent, and thereafter revise the document on a word processor or the like with reference to the comments made on the hard copy.
In many fields, however, it is often desirable to make a single document reflect the contributions of numerous individuals. For example, documents embodying written agreements which define legal or financial rights and obligations among several parties are frequently written, commented upon, and ultimately revised based on the comments of many participants in the creation of the ultimate document. Such participants might include the parties affected by the document, attorneys representing such parties, financial institutions, and the like.
The creation, commenting upon and revision of such documents becomes exponentially more difficult as the number of participants in the document creation process increases. A threshold problem arises in distributing a specific version of the document to all participants at substantially the same time. If a version of a document is not distributed to all participants virtually simultaneously, it is difficult to ensure that all participants are evaluating and commenting upon the same version of the document. This problem becomes even more acute when the participants are geographically dispersed. Even if the document can be distributed to all participants in a rapid and controlled manner, it is highly inefficient for the participants to utilize the standard method of commenting on the document by printing out hard copies of the document and inscribing comments thereupon. These hard copies would need to be mailed or otherwise transmitted to a central revisionist controlling the revisions of the document, whose task of compiling and organizing the comments in a manner permitting an intelligent revision of the document would be made extremely difficult by the many disparate written comments.
As an alternative, the participants may choose to mail or electronically mail their comments on a version of the document to such a revisionist. However, since the comments of each participant would be contained in a single electronic mail message pertaining to the whole document, the central revisionist's burden of collating and organizing the comments intelligently would not be eased. In fact, given the ease with which such comments may be sent by electronic mail, participants may be more likely to send lengthy and unorganized comments, thereby making the revisionist's task even more difficult.
Finally, many multi-participant documents such as those described above are lengthy and incorporate terms having specialized definitions. Each participant's duty to evaluate each version of the document is made difficult by the length and lexicography embodied in each such document. For example, each time a participant encounters a term having a specialized definition set forth elsewhere in the document, the participant must typically locate the definition manually, and must thereafter manually find and return to the location in the text where the defined term appeared to continue reading. Moreover, the number and identification of such defined terms, as well as their definitions themselves, are subject to change from version to version, thereby increasing the difficulty of each participant's evaluation of each version of the document.
Document management systems have been created which enable participants to edit drafts of a document and to send these edited drafts to other participants for evaluation. These document management systems operate on a so-called "version management" principle by merely managing the versions of the documents revised by the participants. These prior art "version management" document management systems suffer, however, because the documents themselves may be changed by every participant, thereby complicating the process of document revision with controlled evaluation, analysis and comment by each participant so as to incorporate the desired changes of all participants in each revision of the document. These prior art document management systems also fail to organize and relate participants' comments to portions of the document affected by the comments, and also fail to facilitate a participant's reference to defined terms.
Accordingly, there is a need for a document management system which: (a) allows potentially geographically dispersed participants to efficiently and intelligently evaluate documents and to communicate comments regarding such documents; (b) allows such participants to readily recognize the changes made between different versions of the same document and to view such changes only, if desired; (c) organizes such comments intelligently with respect to the document context of each comment; (d) facilitates evaluation of the document by participants by improving the automated presentation of defined terms; and (e) facilitates the rapid and accurate preparation of each version of the document.